The Irvine City Council on Sept. 24 rejected an appeal by an environmental group that called for the city to quash Maruchan Inc.’s expansion plan at the Spectrum area.
Maruchan, a unit of Japan’s Toyo Suisan Kaisha Ltd., sought to enlarge its Irvine Spectrum footprint with a 227,436-square-foot warehouse, adding to its 400,825 square feet of industrial space at 15800 Laguna Canyon Road. Maruchan’s expansion plans were approved by the Irvine Planning Commission on July 18, but the decision was appealed Aug. 1 by the Supporters Alliance For Environmental Responsibility, or SAFER.
SAFER, in its protest filing, argued the city of Irvine did not conduct an adequate California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis of the project. Irvine city staff said the appeal lacked merit.
“The appellant does not have standing to appeal the associated conditional use permit modification because SAFER is neither the applicant nor an owner or resident of property within 500 feet of the project site,” Irvine city staff said in a report to council members.
“The proposed expansion of the Maruchan facility meets all development standards, provides sufficient parking and is compatible with existing and future uses in the surrounding area,” Irvine city staff said.
Maruchan’s current operations features six production lines and 482 employees working two shifts (223 during the day and 182 at night). The company applied to the city of Irvine to add 227,436 square feet of warehouse space for three new production lines and 191 additional employees (103 during the day and 88 at night).
The added space would be dedicated to warehousing, light manufacturing and ancillary office purposes. New driveways, loading docks and equipment would also be added, according to Irvine city staff.
